Red Desert
Red Desert • 1h 57m
Directed by Michelangelo Antonioni • 1964 • Italy
Starring Monica Vitti, Richard Harris
Michelangelo Antonioni’s 1960s panoramas of contemporary alienation were decade-defining artistic events, and RED DESERT, his first color film, is perhaps his most epochal. This provocative look at the spiritual desolation of the technological age—about a disaffected woman, brilliantly portrayed by Antonioni muse Monica Vitti, wandering through a bleak industrial landscape beset by power plants and environmental toxins, and tentatively flirting with her husband’s coworker, played by Richard Harris—continues to keep viewers spellbound. With one startling, painterly composition after another—of abandoned fishing cottages, electrical towers, looming docked ships—RED DESERT creates a nearly apocalyptic image of its time, and confirms Antonioni as cinema’s preeminent poet of the modern age.
Up Next in Red Desert
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Michelangelo Antonion on RED DESERT
This interview with director Michelangelo Antonioni about RED DESERT was conducted as part of the French television series “Les écrans de la ville.” It was directed by Colette Thiriet and first broadcast on November 12, 1964.
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Monica Vitti on RED DESERT
In this interview from the French television series “Cinéma cinémas,” actress Monica Vitti discusses her relationship with Michelangelo Antonioni and her approach to acting. The interview was directed by Guy Girard and first broadcast on March 10, 1990.
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Richard Peña on RED DESERT
